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NEWS

RELEASE

News Plans for Recycling in the Borough


Surrey Heath Borough Council’s Executive on Tuesday 8th November 2005, approved a revised recycling scheme for the Borough.
The Council has for many years been in the top ten performers for recycling in England with an extremely cost effective scheme. However our current recycling rate is now static at around 23% and in order to meet the Governments target of 30% the Council is now looking to introduce a revised recycling scheme in a balanced and managed way.

This will be a two phase approach. Phase One will be to be implement a scheme for wheeled bins in flats, schools, nursing homes and residential homes to commence in March 2006, secondly, issuing clear plastic sacks for the remaining households in the Borough for the weekly collection of paper and cardboard recyclables to roll out after April 2006, including a change from ‘back door collection’ to ‘front of curtilage’ and thirdly the introduction of a Garden Waste Club to roll out after April 2006. The Garden Waste Club is a scheme where residents can subscribe to be provided with a green wheelie bin for all their green garden waste, which will be collected fortnightly. This is proving very successful in other Boroughs.

With the implementation of Phase One it is estimated that the recycling rate should increase to approximately 30%.

Phase Two consists of four elements. The first includes the continuation with the collection scheme for flats, schools and so on. Secondly, the continuation of the garden waste scheme, thirdly to work to revise and agree a comprehensive Waste and Recycling Strategy for the Council by mid-2007, and fourthly to investigate the cost benefit of introducing alternate weekly collection of refuse/recycling in wheeled bins, with a view to this option being evaluated for possible inclusion in the specification for the new contract following expiration of the existing waste/recycling contract in 2009.

Due to resource implications of this proposal it will be rolled out over a number of years to allow the Council to provide the best service and to not rely on the Council Tax payers income.

The Head of Environmental Services will produce reports to future meetings of the Executive, with the intention of progressing the other elements of Phase One and continue progressing work to evaluate the cost benefit of changing the collection service as outlined in Phase Two.

Cllr. Vivienne Chapman Surrey Heath’s Portfolio Holder for Customer Care said, “The revised recycling schemes will help to recycle more effectively because residents will be able to recycle more from their homes, instead of making the trip to the designated sites or just throwing it away. This will also help to decrease the amount of household waste going to Landfill Sites.”

For further information about recycling in Surrey Heath please visit the Surrey Heath website www.surreyheath.gov.uk – Look under ‘Environment’ and then 'Recycling’. Alternatively please contact Environmental Services on 01276 707330.





For further information or photographs contact:
Amanda Gow, Press & Communications Officer   01276 707312
Jenni Wheller, Communications Assistant   01276 707415


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